Plans for an A82 relief road are still on track – despite an attempt to derail the project last week.

West Dunbartonshire Council is proposing the route and a major industrial development on parts of the former Bowling site of oil giant Exxon, as part of the City Region Deal.

However, the £34million project came under scrutiny from Councillor Jim Bollan after it was revealed last week that the proposal had been delayed by 11 months – and that taxpayers will likely have to fork out an additional £4m-£6m for it to materialise.

Concerned about the heavy contamination of the land – including asbestos – and the public having to foot a huge bill, Councillor Bollan called for the council to withdraw.

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There were also concerns that the deal had slipped back a further year but council officers insisted they weren’t worried by this after meeting with Exxon officials last month.

The council meeting heard that the target date for the project’s final business case - previously set for December 2019 - has been pushed back to November 2020.

Tim Greaves, project manager for Esso’s Bowling site, said: “It is encouraging news for West Dunbartonshire Council that the refreshed business case for its vision within the Glasgow City Region Deal has been agreed. Projects of this kind are complex and necessarily involve a lot of discussions and agreement with third parties, therefore they can take longer than anticipated.

“Esso remains fully committed to effectively remediating the former Bowling terminal site to commercial standards.”